Dr. Andy Agwunobi, CEO of UConn Health, says that about 140 nurses in critical areas, out of 5,700 total staff members, have been given temporary pay boosts to help in recruiting and retaining skilled people.

Dr. Andy Agwunobi, CEO of UConn Health, says that about 140 nurses in critical areas, out of 5,700 total staff members, have been given temporary pay boosts to help in recruiting and retaining skilled people. (Amy Ellis / Hartford Courant)

As state government tries to trim expenses in general, UConn Health in Farmington is paying more than 100 nurses an extra $400 in each biweekly paycheck until mid-2019 — at a projected cost of $1.2 million, UConn says — under an agreement reached quietly with a state employee union.

UConn says it needs to retain and attract skilled people in critical areas such as the emergency department, intensive care and operating rooms “due to increased patient volumes and market competition for nurses.” The temporary pay boost will affect about 140 people who, as a group, add up to 120 “full-time job equivalents” out of the total staff of 5,700.

“UConn Health and University Health Professionals Local 3837 … enter into this agreement to address recruitment and retention issues involving the compensation of Staff Nurses in the Operating Room, Intensive Care Unit, Intermediate Unit and Emergency Department,” says the document obtained by The Courant through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The agreement, running from this past Feb. 16 through June 20, 2019, says the nurses “permanently assigned” to the four critical areas “will receive a $400 per [two-week] pay period stipend payable as a lump sum.” It’s the same for nurses “permanently assigned to the RN Float Poo l… and identified as Critical Care Floats.” Other nurses will be paid the stipend for time worked in any of the listed units.

UConn Health’s CEO, Dr. Andy Agwunobi, said the hospital “is seeing record numbers of patients. This increased volume, combined with market competition for nurses, has made it challenging to recruit nurses, particularly for our high acuity, rapidly growing areas such as the Emergency Department, Operating Rooms and the Intensive Care Unit.”

“Locally in Connecticut, there is strong competition for the nurses in the emergency departments, operating rooms, and critical care areas, among others,” Agwunobi said, adding that it’s been difficult to attract nurses because of factors that include “high patient volumes” and better pay at other hospitals. Those same factors also have “threatened our ability to retain the seasoned nurses that have been with us for a long time,” he said.

Agwunobi said that in the five weeks since the agreement was reached, “we have hired seven new nurses in these critical areas, with more expected soon.” He said he’s “grateful for the spirit of partnership exhibited by [the union] in working with us to address a critical need swiftly.”

UConn released charts showing average hourly pay rates of $34.79 for emergency room, intensive care and operating room nurses at John Dempsey Hospital — compared with $39.96 for their counterparts elsewhere, as surveyed by the Connecticut Hospital Association.

Surgical cases are up 12.8 percent at UConn Health, and emergency room visits are up 4.5 percent, during the current fiscal year, which that began last July 1. That continues what UConn says has been steady growth since the $325 million University Tower was opened there in mid- 2016.

An individual getting the extra $400 in each of the 35 pay periods of the 70-week agreement would receive $14,000 above his or her base salary. Multiplying $14,000 by 120 full-time equivalents comes out to a total of $1.68 million. It’s unclear how UConn arrived at its lower projection of $1.2 million — although people who haven’t yet been hired obviously won’t be there for all 35 pay periods.

The financial struggles of the health center make perennial news — as in June 2017, when officials released a $1 billion budget forecast that projected a $60 million deficit for the current fiscal year and warned that the current structure of the operation is "financially unsustainable." The new fiscal year begins July 1, and officials are preparing new projections that should be released later this spring.

Jon Lender is a reporter on The Courant's investigative desk, with a focus on government and politics. Contact him at jlender@courant.com, 860-241-6524, or c/o The Hartford Courant, 285 Broad St., Hartford, CT 06115 and find him on Twitter@jonlender.

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